so your problem is nothing to do with the node being in a different xml
file it's just that you don'tknow the exact depth of the H element.
You could do this as you say

  I have solved this.. by checking <Rot> 
  if it is exists 
  I will use
  select="$StampTextInfo/AnnotationData/Rot/PElems/H[@pID=$TiffIdTmp]"/>
  or 
  select="$StampTextInfo/AnnotationData/PElems/H[@pID=$TiffIdTmp]"/>


or you could just do

  select="$StampTextInfo/AnnotationData//H[@pID=$TiffIdTmp]"/>

David


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